


Once Bitten, Twice Kind

by poobletoods



Category: Little Nightmares (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fix-It, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, i indent my paragraphs sue me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29511312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poobletoods/pseuds/poobletoods
Summary: It goes a little differently this time.
Relationships: Mono & Six (Little Nightmares)
Comments: 34
Kudos: 377





	1. Arms Outstretched

**Author's Note:**

> Carried over from DA, figured I'd post it here as well! You can check out the art that goes with it @poobletoods on tumblr ;)
> 
> I might add to this if I ever write more for this AU, who knows yknow! But for now have a short n sweet fix of the Big Whoopsie that broke so many of us, myself included.

The distant chimes of a music box, growing louder and clearer with each step. A soft purple light dancing through cracks in rotten wood, trying to bring some semblance of beauty to the desolate tower. A winding staircase, each step bringing him closer to whatever—whoever—lay at the structure’s core. A door nudged gently, hesitantly, and a figure slowly revealed as the music continued.

Mono’s hands flew to his face, instinct telling him to stifle the gasp that tried to escape his mouth. He felt his knees begin to shake, felt his face grow cold as his heart broke in two. He’d found her. But it was already too late.

Six’s mangled form towered over him, a cruel mockery of what had just a few hours ago been his faithful companion. Her arms were elongated and bent at unnatural angles, her legs folded into themselves in an attempt to keep her upright, her pitch-dark hair matted into thick ropes that dragged the ground with every movement of her misshapen body. She was hunched over, arms curled around an object that Mono couldn’t see. Given the volume of the music, though, he could make a confident guess as to what it was.

Every bone in his body was telling him to run. This wasn’t Six anymore, this was a monster. She was gone, and if he didn’t get away from her soon, he would be next. But he couldn’t bring himself to turn away. Not again. Not now, after everything he’d put her through. It was his fault she’d been taken, his fault that the Thin Man was released, his fault that she was turned into this… thing. He wouldn’t let himself leave her again.

Cautiously, he took a step forward. The floorboards creaked beneath him, but Six did not respond, so he took another. By the time he was close enough to reach out to her, she had raised her head just enough to put him in her sights. Through her dark hair, Mono could see one of her eyes. It was wide open, tiny pupil staring directly at him, an echo of recognition fighting to get through. He had expected to see nothing but darkness in her eyes, the same darkness that marked the other monsters of the world as enemies, but there was none. All he could see in her still-childlike eyes was fear.

“Six?”

The whisper left Mono of its own volition, and he immediately froze for fear of being attacked. Six did the same, however, just for a moment. Then she leaned forward, bracing her deformed body on one of her arms, until her face was level with his. Her hair obscured most of it, but Mono could still see one of her eyes as it looked him over feverishly. More than anything, he wanted to comfort her, to hold her hand like he’d done through so much of the Pale City, just to let her know that he was there. He considered turning back, leaving before he caused her any more hurt, but a low rumble from the creature in front of him made him stop.

“Mmnnn…nno?”

Six’s voice was horrifying, and it made his brain scream at him to get away. Every sound she made was accompanied by a gurgling, pained noise from within. Her mouth twisted at gruesome angles as she tried to form words, her head snapping back and forth. Under the sickening roar, though, Mono could swear he heard something else. A higher, shakier voice lost somewhere in the monster before him. He stepped closer, extending an arm towards his friend.

“Y—yeah. It’s me, Six. It’s Mono.”

After a long pause, the hand she’d been using to hold the music box uncurled and reached out to him. Fear gripped his heart again, but he pushed it down and took hold of one of her fingers. Her skin was cold and rough.

“Do you… are you hurt?” he asked.

Six responded with a nearly imperceptible tilt of her head. He wished he knew how she was feeling, but at the very least she didn’t seem to be in pain. She turned her hand over, offering it as a platform to the boy. He carefully climbed onto her palm, and Six’s fingers wrapped around him. She’s trying to hug me, he thought. Six brought her other hand up to his head and gently mussed his hair, her strength making him flinch. She could’ve crushed him with a thought. He brushed his doubts away and focused on what she was trying to say. When he realized, he almost smiled.

“I lost the bag, yeah. The Thin Man—”

Six’s grip around his waist tightened and she bared her teeth. He didn’t startle this time, even as Six’s eyes darted defensively around the room.

“It’s okay,” Mono cooed. “He’s gone. We’re safe now, okay?”

She returned her gaze to her friend.

“Oooh…k-ckkaaah…” she choked out. Mono felt her relax, and she rested back on her haunches, bringing him closer. All the while, the music box turned.

“Six…We’re going to have to leave the tower eventually.”

Her hands stayed still, but she slowly shook her head. Mono heard her breath quicken, and tears began to creep down her face and fall to the ground. He fought his own eyes as they tried to do the same.

“N—no, Six, we—we don’t have to go yet. We can stay here for a while, okay? I’ll stay with you. I’ll stay,” he promised, reaching for her again. She pulled him close, and Mono wrapped his arms around her neck, letting the beating of his heart calm her rapid breathing. He wanted to bury his face in her raincoat and cry with her until he couldn’t anymore, but that wasn’t what she needed. She needed him to be strong. He’d been so weak before, he had to be strong for her this time.

When her tears had subsided, Six gently lowered Mono back to the floor and took hold of her music box once again. Mono sat down heavily, his muscles shot from the climb up the tower and his earlier battle with the Thin Man, and watched as she swayed to the music. Despite everything, she seemed calm, almost happy. He would wait with her, give her the time she needed to adjust, and when she was ready, they would leave together.

He wouldn’t let her go this time.


	2. Weathering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ended up writing a little more for this AU! I wouldn't really call this a proper "chapter" as far as continuation of the story goes, it's really more of a stream of consciousness kinda deal to flesh out Mono's relationship with Six. I really enjoyed writing this, but honestly I don't really know if there's much of a story to tell here. I do like the idea of small slice of life type chapters in the future tho! I'll probably come back to this AU and write about how their new lives are going whenever I need some nice organic friendship fluff.

It’s cold. Even here, within the brick walls of a run-down department store, searching for something yet unknown in the discarded piles of fabric. It appears to him there, after a mold-crusted scarf has been pushed aside to reveal it. A deep greenish-brown garment, sewn together with thick line, meant to hold up against the elements. It’s smooth to the touch despite the grime blessing its surface, covered with a thin layer of water-resistant material. The pockets are just the right size to hold any items that are too cumbersome to carry. He slings it on, patches of stiffness crumbling away as it fits itself to his body. A long tail billows out behind him, adding an unfamiliar degree of intimidation to his silhouette.

He’s still cold.

The illusory comfort of a tree branch, suspending him high above the danger that he can still hear too clearly. The Hunter lurks below, just out of view, following his trail with all the skill of a bloodhound and all the grace of a bull. He leaves his own path in the undergrowth, one of destruction and unrest. The soil he walks on won’t dare to sprout grass again. Distant creatures of the night call out around the boy in the tree, unaware of his peril, as he fights off exhaustion. He’s up here because he can’t afford to fall asleep. One blink too many meant a permanent slumber. Even so, he longs for a day when he can rest easy. As he watches a small figure emerge from the tree line, he thinks for a moment that he’s already dreaming.

But he can’t be, because he’s still cold.

The second time he encounters her, it’s in that ghost of a home where creatures enter and skin and teeth leave. She’s out of sight, but he knows she’s there, her heart beating in time with the eerie comfort of a music box. He has to get to her before anything else does. The axe is heavy in his hands, carving a scar into the hard wood floor as he drags it to her prison. At the first swing, the music stops, and he hears her startle. At the second, the toy rolls across the room as she flees. When the door finally breaks down, unable to withstand a third blow, he just catches sight of her. He creeps into the room and she cowers under a table. He doesn’t blame her for being scared. A whisper in dusty light, an arm outstretched, asking for far more than he has any right to. She crawls towards him, reaches up, only to shove him away at the last second and dash past him. He falls to the ground and watches her go.

He’s cold again.

Tucked away under tree roots and brush, creepy-crawlies skittering around his feet, he wonders what her name is. He doesn’t dare ask, not while a light sweeps across the grass before them, searching hungrily, but he wonders. The beast lumbers past and settles further into the forest. This time, she reaches out to him. He takes her hand, fingers curling around her palm, uncertainty in every motion. She’s scared again. He leads her out of the cave slowly and carefully while his heart pounds in his throat. They walk as one, growing ever closer to their captor. Each time his bare feet touch the ground, he holds his breath, hoping against hope that the foliage doesn’t betray him. He and his companion freeze instantly when a crow bursts from the field. Feathers rain down, but the Hunter does not shoot. His light grazes the area, breath coming in sharp bursts and vaporizing in the night air. The boy grips the girl’s hand with terror.

In the blinding light of the Hunter’s gaze, his hands go cold.

He fights with all his strength when the porcelain children take her. He pushes them, kicks them, throws them against the walls and hears their heads shatter, but they persist. She’s dragged away as he watches hopelessly. By the time he can free himself of the metal box they’ve pushed down onto him, she’s gone. He rampages through the school, swinging ladles and hammers with reckless abandon, until he finds where they’ve been keeping her and cuts her down. She hits the floor harder than he would’ve liked. The hammer falls with a crash as he rushes over to her unmoving form, terrified that he’s too late. But she struggles to her knees, helped by his reassuring hand, and is soon back on her feet. He searches her blank face for any sign of discomfort or pain, any hint that she’s been hurt beyond the bruising he can see. There’s evidence of the rope they’d used to string her up in the form of an ugly red burn around her leg, but she seems otherwise unfazed. Together, they climb a busted radiator and pry open the bathroom’s only window.

Cold air rushes in, and the boy shivers.

The hospital is worse. Despite the filth caking the floor tiles and peeling wallpaper, it feels sterile and lifeless. Every corner is littered with discarded mannequin limbs and bloodied rolls of gauze and jars full of unidentifiable viscera. More than once, he finds himself nearly gagging on the foul smell of the place. It’s rotting from the outside in. There is a small comfort in the madness, though—he knows her name. Six holds his hand faithfully through the decrepit corridors and boosts him up through broken windows, all with a newfound confidence that he credits to her raincoat. It suits her, he thinks, a tiny drop of color in the wasteland, determined to stand out despite the world’s efforts to swallow her up in darkness. Seeing her like this, he has no questions about how she survived so long on her own. Six is a force of nature, a beacon of determination, something the creatures of this world would not be mistaken to fear. When he finds himself somewhere she can’t follow, uneasiness sets in immediately. He knows she’ll wait for him just outside the door, right where he left her, but the separation stings nevertheless. The flashlight in his hand offers little respite from the blackness.

Even in its light, the world feels cold.

Screeching fills his ears and draws him forward, away from his companion. He doesn’t know why he’s doing this. He tries to stop himself from getting any closer to the roaring television, but his muscles refuse to submit. It pulls him in, little by little, until he finds his hand on yet another screen, something foreign and unwelcome flowing into his fingertips. It settles in his core, tiny bolts of lightning shocking him from one reality to another, lifting him off the ground and out of consciousness until the world moves slow. He’s back in the hallway. Attempting movement is like trying to swim through mud. He’s compelled by a force he cannot see to continue, to follow the hall to its end and see what lies behind the door. Curiosity clouds his judgement, and he does as it bids. When Six is finally able to pull him out of the device, he knows he’s done something horrible. A hand appears on the screen.

The room grows unimaginably, impossibly cold.

Slowly, but with clarity, Mono comes back to reality. The dreams fizzle out, leaving nothing but vague memories in their wake, and he takes in his surroundings one by one. Six’s new hulking form is nestled beside him, one too-long arm around the still-spinning music box and the other propping up her heavy head. Mono is tucked into the crook of her elbow, using her rope-like strands of hair as a makeshift blanket. He doesn’t remember falling asleep. The last thing he can recall is Six wearily pushing the music box in his direction, asking without words for him to keep winding it as she rests. He supposes he must have followed. He’s still tired, unaware of how long he’s been out, and he can feel his eyelids growing heavy again. It had been a long time since he’d felt safe enough to sleep. He has a feeling he’ll be noticing a lot of changes like that in the coming days. His eyes fall shut.

He’s warm.


	3. Something New, Something Strange (Ten Feet Taller, I Had Changed)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HIGHLY recommend listening to dodie’s “Ready Now” before or after reading this chapter for maximum effect ;)

Six felt as if her head was full of fog. When she’d been taken by the thing in the television, something inside her had changed. It was like her very being had been ripped apart and crudely put back together, leaving her a broken shell of her former self. She could still remember the events preceding her capture, could still remember Mono’s voice in the darkness, but there was a new degree of separation. The world didn’t seem passive, not anymore. It wasn’t just a blank slate that happened to be inhabited by monsters; it was a monster in and of itself. Everything that breathed would be claimed by it eventually, no matter how hard they tried to fight or how much luck was on their side. Reality was poison, and it had finally gotten to her. She was furious. She was terrified. Those warring emotions shaped her physical form, bent it and broke it until there was seldom any resemblance to the girl she had been. She didn’t remember much of the process.

When she came back to consciousness in the depths of the signal tower, all she could do was huddle in the corner of her room and let the music soothe her racing mind. She’d always loved music, always been comforted by sounds that weren’t hostile. Days might have passed for all she could tell, the room not bidding any sunlight or sense of time, before something changed. The door swung open, and a vaguely familiar child walked into her room. She knew him, didn’t she? There was something there, in the way he moved, that told her she had met him before. But her mind was scattered to the winds, her eyes refusing to match what she saw with what she thought. It wasn’t until the boy spoke that she was able to make the connection.

“Six?”

 _Six_. What did that mean again? Her name. It was her name, she was sure of that. Or at least, it was what she was called. And who had called her? She leaned forward to get a better look at him. A dusky coat with a long trail. Sickly pale skin. A short mass of dark hair. That part was new, she was sure of it. Why was she so sure?

 _Mono_ , her static-addled brain supplied. That was it. His name was Mono. She’d come into the city with him, hadn’t she? They’d escaped the school, the hospital, the empty streets and alleyways… he’d been there for all of it. He was there, right until he wasn’t.

 _Why hadn’t he been?_ A voice somewhere within her asked. _Why did it matter?_ She countered.

_The Thin Man took me. He took me and Mono watched him do it._

That much was true.

_I can’t trust him. He let me go. He’s… he’s a…_

Her train of thought stopped short. _A monster_ , she was going to say. And who was she to talk?

If he was truly bad, why had he come back? Especially now, when she’d been claimed by the darkness already? He was too late to save her, and yet he stayed.

She wanted to ask him why. She wanted to know how he could let her go and still come back to her.

 _But did it matter?_ She could call him a monster. Call him evil. Call him an endless list of horrible things. But none of it would change what had happened. He was here now, facing her, ready to atone for his mistakes. He didn’t run when he saw the thing she’d become, wasn’t afraid of what she might do to him, even after seeing so much destruction in the world. Destruction caused by creatures that like her. If he could see through her monstrous form, she could see past his failures. She was more than the body she’d been put into, and he was more than the worst mistake he’d made. If that meant they were both monsters, it was fine by her.

She looked into the boy’s dark eyes and spoke.

The next time Mono awoke, it was to the sounds of tiny pieces of wood gently clinking together. His mind was still hazy with sleep, but he could see that Six was awake as well, playing with a few of the blocks that were floating around the room. It was a fascinating thing, watching her pluck the cubes from the air and add them to the rapidly growing tower in front of her. The entire situation was strange, really. Here he was, an average human boy sitting next to a hulking, mutated, almost-humanoid creature, listening to the music that was drifting gently around the room alongside chairs and teddy bears and train sets. Any other day he would’ve feared for his safety, would’ve dashed out of the room to find a place to hide—but not today. Today, he had a promise to keep, and a friend who was counting on him to do just that.

He got to his feet and brushed some dust off his coat. It was still a bit damp from the rain, he realized, and the thought reminded him of what had happened just outside the tower. He still didn’t quite understand how he’d managed to fend off the Thin Man’s advances. When he’d seen the tall figure approaching, he simply felt something inside him shift and fall into place like it never had before. His mind and his body had come to a silent agreement somewhere along the way, and he’d acted accordingly. Ashes were all that was left of the Thin Man now. Mono had wanted him gone, but not like that. Not by his own hand. The Thin Man had been the most powerful and terrifying entity in the Pale City. If Mono had been the one to take him down, what did that make him?

With a gentle nudge, Six assuaged his worries and guided him to stand by her side as she finished her block tower. He smiled when she looked at him for approval, and he could’ve sworn she returned the grin. She held her hand out to him like she’d done before, this time asking him to take it in his own. He wrapped his comparatively tiny hand around one of her fingers.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked softly. Six gave a single nod, and her unoccupied hand picked up the music box and secured it in a pocket of her raincoat. She took a step forward. Mono took three. Even in this state, Six was timid and wary of the outside world, not letting the boy stray too far from her grasp. Mono took the lead, guiding Six down warped staircases and through busted doorframes until they were back at the base of the tower. The climb up had seemed so daunting, so perilous when he was alone. Now, with his friend by his side, it was almost pleasant. Muffled as it was, the music box provided a peaceful ambiance to the surreal environment, grounding him against the confusion that threatened to wash his sanity away. He understood why Six had wanted to stay there, in the soothing glow of the signal tower, but they both knew she couldn’t survive in that room forever. Eventually, something would give, and it would take Six down with it. He gripped her hand a little tighter.

Rain continued to fall outside, gracing the landscape with a sheet of oil-slicked water. When Six pushed the tower’s main door open, a few drops landed on her hand, and she yanked it back with a yelp.

“Whoa! Hey, it’s alright,” Mono said, stepping forward to catch the door before it swung closed. “It’s just rain, remember? You’ve got a raincoat. It keeps you dry.”

Six didn’t seem convinced. He wondered how much she _did_ remember of the person she’d been before the Thin Man took her. She knew his voice and his touch, but she didn’t seem to understand the water falling from the sky. They’d walked through the rain together for hours. Could she recall their time together, or was Mono’s presence the only thing that survived?

“Here, I’ll show you.” Mono stuck his own hand out into the downpour and flinched at the water’s temperature. Six started to pull him back, but he put a reassuring hand on her arm and continued out the door. His hair and coat were soaked again within seconds, but he kept a smile on his face. Six relaxed and slowly extended her arm once again. The rain ran over her hand and her wrist, then pattered on the sleeve of her coat. She leaned out the door further, perplexed by the sound, and her eyes grew wide as the rain fell on her hood.

“Do you… like the sound?”

Six pushed her way through the door until she was fully engulfed by the rain, holding her palms up and staring into the air blankly. Mono was worried for a moment that the water was hurting her, but he was sure if it was she wouldn’t have come out. A low, breathy sound came from the girl’s mouth, and her chest heaved rhythmically in time with it. She gazed up at the sky, letting the water flow across her tear-stained cheeks, and her smile made Mono understand. She was laughing. He supposed rain must look silly to anyone who wasn’t familiar with it—tiny drops of water falling from the sky, making pools in the concrete and chilling the air. He’d never stopped to appreciate it before, but the sound the drops made when they ricocheted off Six’s raincoat were oddly pleasant. Six seemed to agree.

A gust of wind made Mono’s coat ripple and sent the rain on a diagonal course. He shivered. Six noticed immediately and hurried to scoop him up in her enormous hands.

She brought him close to her face and spoke quietly. “Kckkckc…oo—oold?”

“I’ll be okay,” he assured her, fighting another chill. He _was_ cold, but he found it didn’t bother him much now.

Six didn’t seem satisfied with his response. Her spine twisted and creaked as she bent to look around the barren street, presumably searching for something to keep him warm. After a moment of thought, Mono watched her slide a hand under her raincoat’s hood and lower it to her shoulders.

“Wh—Six, you don’t need to give me your coat. It won’t fit me anyway, see? I’m way smaller… than…” he trailed off as he found himself gently placed on Six’s head. Before Mono could ask her what she was doing, she had lifted her hood again so that it sheltered them both from the downpour. He giggled.

“Okay, yeah, you’re right. This beats walking in the rain.”

After making sure Mono was secured and safe, Six started forward. The boy took hold of a few strands of her hair to keep himself in place. From his new vantage point, the Pale City didn’t seem so frightening. Maybe it was knowing that Six was there to keep him company, or maybe it was simply being off the ground, but it was nice either way. Under her hood, the sound of the raindrops was clearer, and he was happy to enjoy it with his friend.


	4. Togetherness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little compilation of events to see this AU off! :)

Driven by a strange—but welcome—sense of purpose, Mono led Six through the Pale City street by street, unsure what he was searching for. They spent their days trekking past collapsed shopping centers, abandoned duplexes, and long forgotten phone booths, and took refuge under barbershop awnings or tipped-over dumpsters during the night. Food was as scarce as always, but Six’s new size meant they needed to find twice as much. Anytime they came across a rare surplus of still-edible food, she would pile as much as she could into the unoccupied pockets of her raincoat. When they settled down to eat, she’d split the food into equal portions, giving herself only as much as Mono got.

Actions like this made the boy wonder if Six knew what she looked like. Surely she must, right? She knew her reach had extended by a dozen feet, and that her head nearly reached the ceiling of every building they entered. She must realize on some level that she wasn’t the same as she had been before she’d been taken. Maybe this was her way of coping with it.

“Here, Six, have some of mine,” Mono said, seeing the way the girl was eyeing his can of unidentifiable fruit matter. She’d long since finished her own, plus a small loaf of bread that they’d found in a freezer a few days prior. Six shook her head and gently pushed him away when he tried to hand her the can. Mono sighed. He was hungry, sure, but Six was so much bigger than him. She needed it more.

“I’m okay, Six. You’re hungry.”

She turned away, once again refusing his offering. He took her hand.

“I know you want to protect me, and make sure I’m safe. But you can’t do that if you’re starving. Just take it, Six, please?”

She met his eyes, and her resolve faltered. With a huff, she took the can and quickly downed its contents. She then handed it back to Mono, who scraped up the remaining syrupy substance with his stubby fingers.

“Thank you. Next time I’ll eat more, okay? I promise.”

She held him to it.

“I’ll be right back, Six!”

Mono was hanging out the window of their current refuge, a two-story building that had once been a grocery of some kind. Six was already settled for the night, but Mono had seen a storage shed behind the structure that he wanted to investigate. It was too small for her to fit inside comfortably.

Six lifted her head from her position on the ground and examined the boy.

“Ckcaa—aare…fful,” she mumbled sleepily.

“I will be.”

He slipped out the window and shuffled across a busted gutter pipe, then dropped to the ground and headed for the shed. It was perfectly square and flat on all sides, the door smooth like the ones he’d seen on freezers in the past. Luck was on his side today, it seemed, as he tried the handle and found it unlocked. On the inside, the shed’s walls were lined with shelves, empty aside from a viscous black goop, which seemed to coat every surface. He realized in an instant that he wouldn’t find any food there.

A sound from under one of the lowest shelves caught his attention. It was a gross squelching kind of noise, the kind his feet made when he stepped in mud. The source of the sound was a black mass that he hadn’t noticed at first glance, slowly growing in size and wriggling out from under the shelf. He took a step back. The thing squealed and split off into several pieces, each one crawling at him with alarming speed. He would recognize the leeches anywhere. 

Another sound cut through the squishing and screeching of the leeches—the unmistakable _thunk_ of the door behind him closing. He turned and reached for the handle only for it to break clean off in his hand. On a split-second decision, he threw it at the nearest leech and watched the creature curl up in agony. He wouldn’t be getting it back. One of the other leeches, one with something akin to an appendage jutting out of its side, leapt directly at his head with a cry. He ducked just in time to avoid its jaws, but it quickly rebounded off the wall and tried again.

“ _Gah!_ Stop it! Stop! Get _away!_ ” he cried, stomping and flailing at the creatures. His panic was halted by a familiar shriek in the distance followed by a flurry of thundering footsteps. Six burst through the shed door screaming, her tiny voice amplified and distorted into a terrifying roar.

Despite not understanding that growing exponentially in size meant she needed to consume more food, Six seemed to know that she was stronger now. Before Mono could cry for help, she had knocked the leeches off of him and pulverized them with her bare hands. Employing a much softer grip, she placed Mono outside the shed and went to work smashing it to smithereens. Each swing of her elongated arms was accompanied by a scream, rage spilling over and fueling her attack. The shed buckled under the force of her fists colliding mercilessly with its surface until it began to crumble where it stood. Black sludge splashed out onto the grass along with busted pipes, rebar, and chunks of cinderblock.

Mono stood his ground, unfettered by her power, watching in awe as she demolished the structure with ease. If he had been worried about facing monsters before, that feeling had long since evaporated. Six might be the strongest thing on the Mainland.

When she finally settled in the dust where there had once been a shed, Six was panting and twitching, daring the leeches to show any sign of life beneath the rubble. Mono slowly got to his feet.

“Six?”

The girl’s posture softened at his voice. She turned and crawled over to him. As she was looking him over for injuries, Mono saw that her hands were bruised and bloodied, and he winced. She might be strong, but she wasn’t indestructible.

“Hey, I’m fine. Let’s get your hands cleaned up.”

She tilted her head and looked down at her own hands. Evidently, she hadn’t noticed she was hurting herself.

“Do you still have bandages?” he asked. Six nodded. Mono took her hand and led her back towards their shelter, mindful of her injuries.

Once they were safely inside, he carefully cleaned and wrapped each one of her damaged fingers with supplies they’d collected from the hospital. She flinched every time he pulled a bit too tightly on the gauze, but she remained patient and still throughout.

“Thanks for saving me,” he said quietly as he was finishing up. “I’m sorry you got hurt. I didn’t… I thought there might be food in that shed. But there were just those stupid leeches.”

Six pat him gently on the head, and he smiled. While he was packing up their medical supplies, he heard Six let out a low yawn, and felt the floor tremble as she got situated. He got up and made to find a comfortable place to lay his own head down—maybe an armchair or an old winter coat—but found himself enveloped in one of Six’s hands. She pulled him over and wrapped him in her arms, away from danger and safe from anything that may try to hurt him.

She didn’t let him out of her sight again.

The thing that surprised him most was Six’s continued insistence that, even with the protection she provided him under the hood of her raincoat, Mono needed a hat. Every time they stopped to set up camp for the night in an abandoned apartment or a covered alley, Six would scour the area for something the boy could put on his head. It started with old gauze bandages, discarded teddy bear heads, and deflated soccer balls, but eventually she began to settle for more conventional accessories. Mono dutifully tried them all on, but ultimately exchanged each for the next one Six found when he decided it didn’t suit him. He had been fond of the paper bag, but chances of finding another were slim.

At first, he thought she was trying to keep him safe by hiding his eyes. It was common knowledge amongst the children of the Pale City that you didn’t show your face if you could help it. Don’t make eye contact, don’t broadcast your fear, don’t let them know you’re hanging by a thread. It made sense that Six would worry for the boy’s safety given that his bangs didn’t quite reach his nose. Something told him it ran deeper than that, though. She hadn’t seen his face up until their reunion in the black tower. He’d always had a buffer between them, a plausible deniability that kept either of them from feeling vulnerable, even when they were traveling hand in hand. To see another child’s face was to know them on a level that put both of you in danger and gave the world’s more clever monsters a way into your mind. More than anything, Six needed familiarity right now, and Mono’s eyes were anything but familiar to her. He would find another hat for her sake.

It took a while to get the right one. The postman hat was too poky behind his ears, the rain hat slipped off his head too easily, the fur hat was itchy, and every hat worn by commoners in the city made his reflection too familiar. Eventually, though, they found a winner.

“Ha! Look at this!” Mono called as he lifted a toy horse above his head. It was bright pink with sparkly blue hair and shiny blue eyes. “Pretty weird. I’ve never seen a horse like this. It has a point on its head.” He poked the spine that was sticking from the animal’s forehead and nearly dropped it when it began to play music. Six plucked it out of his grip and held it as it played.

“Nice song. Ooh, what’s this?” Mono reached down and brushed aside the remains of a stuffed animal, revealing a brown bit of fabric. When he picked the thing up, it took him a moment for it to register as a hat. It was rounded with a tiny brim and was covered in squares of different shades of brown. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt like he’d seen it before. Out of curiosity, he placed it on his head. It fit him perfectly.

“Six, look what I found!” he cheered, turning to show the girl. She glanced up from the toy horse. With a decisive motion, she pushed the hat farther down on his head so that it held his bangs over his eyes, then smiled. It felt right, Mono thought.

He started to sing. It was messy at first, his voice weak and unused to producing sounds out of anything but fear. Gradually, though, he found his footing, and his confidence grew alongside the strength of his voice. Whenever Six was scared, or angry, or unsure about the road ahead of them, he sang to her. Sometimes it was meaningless improvised words, sometimes comical descriptions of what was going on around them, and sometimes the broken pieces of a tune he’d heard on the televisions. She didn’t seem to care. Every melody soothed her nightmares and let her know he was there, her one constant in their ever-changing world. He took pride in the knowledge that she trusted him, even after everything, to be her anchor.

He even found a device that made music for him to sing along to. It was some sort of wooden shape with a long neck and a few strings tied to it. It was old and damaged, but it made sounds that Six enjoyed. He got pretty good at playing it.

“Almost got it,” Mono muttered, turning the uppermost knob of the wooden-string-music-player. He plucked at one of the strings as he did, waiting for the instrument to emit a sound that didn’t make him cringe.

“Hah! Got it,” he announced, strumming all four of the strings at once. It made a bright, musical sound that echoed through their most recent settlement—a cozy cave in the side of a mountain just outside the city. Six smiled at him from the pile of stuffing and blankets that they had been calling a bed.

“What should I sing?”

Six tapped a bent finger to her chin in thought. Mono knew what she would say, knew which of his songs was her favorite, but he liked to ask anyway. She seemed to like answering. Shifting her weight onto her side, she reached over to the tiny stream that flowed through the cave and gave it a playful splash.

Mono giggled. “The one about the river?”

Six nodded, beaming.

“Okay, okay. But you always pick that one! I’m gonna have to come up with one you like even more.” His fingers found their place on the instrument, and he gave it a few cursory strums before beginning the familiar set of notes. Six leaned in close to listen.

_“All aboard the river, a way for rain and soul, unsure of destination.”_

Six began to sway to the music. Mono smiled, the expression adding a lilt to his words.

_“We’ll absorb, oh every wind and current, through the troubles of this long and strange adventure.”_

_“Whether we are weak and weary,”_

_“Whether we walk tall and brave,”_

_“I’ll be there for you, you’ll be there for me,”_

_“In the dark, through the wind and the rain.”_

Six’s eyes fell shut. Mono continued to play, making up the notes as he went. When the song finally faded away, he found he was quite tired himself. He assumed his position next to Six, one of his hands resting on hers even in sleep.

One day he’ll grow out of his coat. One day he’ll get taller, his voice will get raspier, and his understanding of the world around him will reach a new point of no return. He’ll start to wonder if there’s any reason behind the madness in their world, or any way to stop the gruesome cycle that so many had fallen victim to. He’ll try to be a hero, at least for a little while. Six will be with him through all of it, to watch him grow. Maybe she’ll grow, too.

Maybe one day, he’ll rest his head on her as he takes his last breath and returns to the soil beneath them. Soil that already holds so many less fortunate souls.

But until then, he’ll hold her hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all had as much fun reading this as I did writing it. I love this game and these kids so much, they deserve so much better and they're gonna get a happily ever after if I have to do it myself.  
> The song Mono sings near the end is a slightly edited portion of Chuck Ragan's Gathering Wood! I changed any words that I thought Mono wouldn't be able to come up with himself lol  
> Anyhow, I had a great time with this AU, and I'm glad so many of you folks enjoyed it as well! <3 <3 <3 If you ever have questions about the AU or just wanna chat, feel free to send me an ask @poobletoods on tumblr!  
> Oh, and the hat Mono gets is the one that the boy from City of Metronome wears!


End file.
